This is my first and only blog attempt that will include; movie reviews, personal thoughts, some humor, and, most importantly, a collection of the concepts and stories that I have both published and are currently developing for future publication. You are welcome to comment on everything, however, I request that all comments are absent of vulgarity or obscenity and demonstrate genuine critical thinking and honest interpretation. Thank you.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

One Minute Movie Review: Transcendence

This is an excellent example of the importance of why many
Sci-Fi films fail time and time again.
As an Uber Fan Boy of this genre for over 33 years, especially the more
cerebral fare, when telling such imaginatively strange stories they must be,
even in the most minor way, believable to the mainstream avoiding the trappings
of becoming encumbered in either the director or writer's message, tech,
perspective, or ideology. Whether
driven by a conceptual prophecy, political dissent, morality play or futuristic
warning, if the propaganda eclipses the storytelling, depth or authenticity of
the characters, and/or relate-ability of the plot itself it will fail. If the scientific exploration, spiritual,
psychological and/or philosophical expression, Avant-garde presentation, or
explanation of the technology introduced
or examined moves from intriguing and engaging to overbearing sermon,
self-indulgent art-show, and/or outright
lecture, no matter how talented the actors are or how well the script is
written and performed, a possible extraordinary cinematic journey becomes a
tedious, burdensome dead end with all of the time spent communicating the
production's purpose simply lost in translation. And, unfortunately, despite possessing two
of my favorite thespians, top notch character players; this feature is
immediately crippled thanks to the aforementioned Achilles’ heel. It starts strong, a bit of a logical
stretch, but I was willing to work with it.
By mid-section, the intellectual fabric of the story, so carefully woven
in the beginning, begins to fully unravel, trying too much to be an abstract
metaphor about dissecting religion, justifying terrorism, government
corruption, and the dangers of technological dependence. None of which stick because the recipe never
cohesively evolves thanks to an over indulgence of disconnected
ingredients. They just spread the
concepts so far they become transparently thin.
This is director Wally Pfister's first outing, and with the disastrous
box office returns, it may be his last.
0 out of 5 Kernels; in this, as
in many other cases of Hollywood of late, proves that high priced star power is
never a solution to save a poor production, sometimes studios need to pull the
proverbial plug and transcend to another more potentially successful
project. But do the Tinsel Town elite
even know what that looks like anymore?